Study of Special Triple Junctions and Faceted Boundaries by Means of the CSL Model

Sufficient work has been made until now on the grain boundaries (GBs) multi-junctions in different polycrystalline cubic materials by using electron microscopy. In the present work the main characteristics of the majority of the junctions reported are theoretically investigated. In fact triple junctions (TJs) show a very systematic geometrical relationship, as far as the thermodynamically favorable grain boundaries are concerned. Thus the possible intersection of three grain boundaries is examined by using the analytical expression of the CSL rotation matrix and the CSL symmetry for cubic system. The general properties obtained are applied on TJs containing low ∑ value grain boundaries and the resulting junctions are examined according to their stability.